Commando Archive
Thread: Combat balance ---> Combat Revamp ---> Now for you viewing pleasure ----> Combat Upgrade
aeuralis wrote:
TH's announcement "if it comes" better be more then
" We are about to start the Sandbox testing with the correspondents and their chosen profession representaives. We want to make this a quality upgrade to the game and so we will be taking our time to get it right. Thank you for you patiance. "
That is not a satisfactory announcement. I understand that they are not going to release any of the doc's this week. But they need to start letting regular players in on thier plan.
While I totally agree with your frustration, there is something to be said for them having a very good reason to be OVERLY cautious at this point...How many times have we seen the Devs post an idea for a game change that turns into a HUGE flamefest due to nothing more that a small group of players confussion or reading to much into the post? Look at the Macro Change post a few months back...All the Devs posted was that they planned on changing the way Macros work and taking out certain aspects of recursive macro'ing...All of the sudden there were huge flame arguements going on in a large number of forums...and they were all centered around how people were convinced the Devs were going to do something they NEVER said they were....The Devs never gave specifics, but still people based their opinions to shot down the idea based on what someone else led them to believe would happen...Even today people are highly against the Macro change because of what they percieve will be how the Devs will make the change (and from what I've heard, they aren't even close)...
So what if the Devs post the docs and they also cause some confusion (which they will at first)...a small group will easily take what they read, focus on one part or two, and attempt to create mass panic that could sink the whole Upgrade...
The Docs have a lot of things being removed...but if you read further you can see they aren't removed they are "moved"...not everyone will pick up on that right away...and there are those out there that will try to sink this whole thing because they'll be losing their "uberness"...
I can fully understand not releasing the docs due to JTL marketing issues...Now JTL has launched so that road block is gone...but it has only been 2 days since it launched...TH is busy drafting up some kind of statement...Hopefully it will be a good one,but who knows...
So personally, I can understand the Dev mentality at approaching this overly cautious...My guess is that the Doc preview will soon move from the Correspondent forum to some type of Sandbox forum where Sandbox testers will be the next preview audience (again, looking for possible panic and flames to put out early)...from there they will likely go public...But again, as usual, that's only a guess on my part (although, my guesses have been pretty on track lately)...
The hardest part of my job is not sharing what I know...There are days I want to spill my guts, but I know that will result in 2 things...(1) My immediate removal as being aCorrespondent and (2) Possibly cause some type of confusion and mass panic about some issue or two before the Devs & Programmers are ready to explain it fully...remember...when I saw the docs, I had the programmers sitting in front of me to answer all my questions and help with any confusion or concerns (heck I spent several days with them, even afterhours had a few drinks with them)...you all won't have the same luxury, so hopefully, at least in some way, I'll be there to help you all with your confusion and concerns...At this point, I don't want to do anything or see anything happen that might jeapordize some or all of the GREAT things we are getting in the Combat Upgrade...I've said it before, from the looks of it and from what the Programmers have said, the Combat Upgrade is impacting Commandos (in a positive way) more heavily then all other Combat Professions...If it requires another day, week or month towait to guarentee this love for our Profession, I for one am willing to wait...
Message Edited by garvin on 10-28-2004 11:00 AM
Don't get me wrong...I 100% agree...Over in the correspondent forum there is several posts a day regarding "Please tell them something" along with posts regaring the growing negativity and justified pessimism in ALL communities regarding the Combat Upgrade...We've repeatedly told the Devs that the longer they wait the worse it will get...
SOETyrant (the big boss) told us Correspondents recently (in response to one of our more rant filled posts) that News would be coming fast after JTL launches....and TH said in another public post that he was working on a special Combat Upgrade announcement for this week...
Trust me...I understand the frustration...
Sry Garvin I believe the dev team is simply using the correspondents as a shield. they tell you guys stuff in the forums so you come out here and defend them and instead of TH saying "soon" now they got you guys saying itfor them. This is very very sad that they would treat the correspondents and the community in such a way. if they can post it in the correspondent forums why can't they post it in the main forums? Actually that is easy to answer if they got you guys saying it for them they don't have to be accussed of not keeping their word they have set you guys up for that fall. That is terribly sad.I for one know that you are telling us this stuff with good intentions but the problem is I don't believe the devs are. I said it before and I'll say it again. If they told the truth then more people would leave so instead they contniue to be silent having us to hope that this will be coming out "soon." As we were hoping back in December and January now December is right around the corner again, the only thing that has changed is the name combat balance ----> combat revamp ------> combat upgrade
No I know it's been said that this more than a blance but they are changing everything yet I haven't heard of a single item that is anything different then what has been talked about for months. HAM chnages that has been in the development cyclce forums as long as I've been on the forums. Weapon revamp was talked about early 2003 in coordination with the balance. Armor chnages as well have been talked about for months and so to have buffs. Whats new to justify yet another name change? Not a thing its a marketing gimmick to make people believe they have put more work then they originally intended into and pass it off as expanding the game rather than fixing it. The only problem is there is absolutley nothing for the common player to look at, reach for or to trust is actually coming "soon."
aeuralis wrote:
I agree they need to be careful about what is released and how they release the info. What I want is them to lay down a plan for releasing the info. Or what they call a "plan of action and milestones". I don't want dates, i understand about have delays in a design process. But i want a statement of these are the steps we need to take and this is what we are in the process.
That is not too much to ask.
Not to much at all...I for one have repeatedly asked that they at least share the things that they KNOW are set in stone even before the Sandbox testing starts...I don't know their timeline or for that matter, even their plan to share the docs, but I do believe there is info that can and should be shared right away...it's not hard to understand and just goes along with information that folks already know or already suspect...
On a side note, something that I thought might help out a bit...I'm pushing (more like poking with my sharp stick) TH to start back up his 19 Questions/Answers posts again now that JTL has launched...I feel this would be a good thing to coincide with the Combat Upgrade AND would help, even a little, those "completely in the dark" feelings...
Skeptic666 wrote:
19 questions LOL!!! Don't you dare then they will have another excuse why they can't do other stuff. Let them make good on there docs and Combat revamp if the 19 questions go again we will be wiating weeks for those to be awnsered then they will say sorry I was working on the 19 questions I did not have time to draw up a friday feature or the docs. That is how they work. They work on the one thing they know we need then they do something petty that we ask for and say oups didnt have time to do those things that we realy needed.
A little background on the 19 Questions/Answers thing that I thought everyone knew...It was never an official thing...It was never part of TH's job responsibility...It was something that TH did on the side after hours running around chatting with various programmers working on various projects...it was just something he liked doing for us...It stopped when he started doing 2 jobs. Then Tiggs was hired to remove that 2 job thing from TH, but things moved right into JTL...
The Docs are written...It's not like they haven't "gotten around to it yet" and it's not like they are putting off getting started...they EXIST...so starting back up the 19 Questions/Answers would in reality be our in to getting MORE info that hasn't previously been released...
In one of the last 19 Questions/Answers post TH made he spilled some important Combat Upgrade information to us...In a way, because of TH, we already know more about what's coming for us in the Combat Upgrade regarding our Profession then other Combat Professions...That's not something you frown at...
Message Edited by garvin on 10-28-2004 11:28 AM
Gotta link you can share? I always love checking out other MMOs out there...I believe the pre-order Beta for Matrix Online is starting here sometime in November...
Novock wrote:
BTW Guild Wars open beta is up a day early so if you're tired of waiting for SOE devs it looks really cool so far.
This page should send you to a link to download the client and for a starter guide.